1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to container disposal apparatus and, more particularly, to apparatus for collecting and storing, for subsequent disposal, containers such as bottles, cans, and the like.
2. Prior Art
Continued concern for the environment, as well as for the need to conserve resources, has led to the proposal of a number of different machines for collecting and storing used containers. Some of these machines receive and break down the containers, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,138 (Luscombe) (bottles); U.S. Pat. No. 3,776,128 (Morris) (cans). Others additionally dispense tokens or other elements of value in exchange, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,334 (Arp); U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,325 (De Woolfson).
Such machines are frequently unduly complex for the simple task they are to perform, and thus are costly to manufacture. Further, while the offering of a monetary return may encourage a marginally greater number of individuals to dispose of their containers in the machine, it is uneconomic to provide a return of sufficient value to each user to insure that significant numbers of individuals will do so.